


lesbians do exist

by thepalebluedot



Series: home is a relative term [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, gay panic and panicking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:48:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23814103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepalebluedot/pseuds/thepalebluedot
Summary: Thalia gay panics and Annabeth is a good friend. Alternatively, no one told Thalia that lesbians exist and now she's rethinking this whole "no romance" thing.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase & Thalia Grace
Series: home is a relative term [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1920187
Comments: 3
Kudos: 39





	lesbians do exist

**Author's Note:**

> i made this post then i made a fic about it. enjoy. title from derry girls. iykyk. also annabeth is bi she just doesn't know it yet. takes place idk when, just go with it.

Thalia has mixed feelings about Camp Half-Blood. 

She loves the strawberry fields and the freedom to run wild in the woods and kill shit whenever she feels the urge. She likes the friendly animosity between the Hunters and the campers. She likes getting to stay in the Artemis cabin when she visits. It isn’t particularly welcoming, like the Zeus cabin, but at least it has beds, unlike the Zeus cabin. She hates the Zeus cabin and that stupid fucking statue. 

On the other hand, she hates the strange looks she gets from campers who know she used to be a tree, and she isn’t particularly fond of the memories from that time of her life. 

Right now, though, she’s never seen a thing more beautiful than the owl carving over the door to the Athena cabin. She takes a moment to talk strategy with herself and evaluates her options: to be sneaky or not to be sneaky. Both options are equally likely to end in violence. She decides that not being sneaky will at least give her the advantage of being able to see, and throws open the door with enough force that it slams into the wall with a satisfying bang. 

Theres a shuffle, several thumps, and a very loud thud. The lights come on. 

Annabeth is still in bed, propped up on her elbow while her free hand holds her dagger. One of her siblings is on the floor, legs tangled up in their bedsheets. Two more of them are standing in front of their beds, weapons ready. 

Annabeth squints at the doorway. “Thalia?”

“Hi,” Thalia says. 

Annabeth starts kicking free of her sheets, confusion giving way to concern. She gets herself upright and hops around as she tries to put on socks. “What’s wrong?”

This question gets a few more of the Athena kids moving. They start pulling on sweatshirts and reaching for weapons, which is really very unnecessary, so Thalia throws up her hands as a sign for them to stop. 

“Nothing is wrong,” she says to the room. “Just need to talk to Annabeth.” 

Annabeth has pulled on a sweatshirt and hiking boots and is strapping her dagger to her thigh. Her pajama shorts have cartoon spiders on them. Thalia is amused. 

“What’s wrong,” Annabeth repeats. 

“Nothing,” Thalia insists. “Just wanted to talk.”

Annabeth stares at her, then looks to the sky for guidance. “Alright,” she says. “False alarm, everyone, back in bed.” 

“Alarm?” Thalia says, offended.

“Yes,” Annabeth says. “We’ll just be outside.” She grabs Thalia’s arm and drags her out the door, pulling it shut behind them. At the bottom of the porch stairs, Annabeth lets go of her arm and turns to face Thalia. “Okay, seriously, what’s wrong?” 

Thalia frowns. “Nothing, is everything okay here?”

“Camp is fine. Is Artemis okay? Where are the rest of the Hunters?”

“What? She’s fine, I think, and I left them in Wyoming.” 

“Wyoming?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Why?”

“I needed to talk to you.” 

“Thalia,” Annabeth rubs at her forehead, “Not that it isn’t good to see you, but it’s the middle of the night.”

“Oh. Sorry. This is as fast as I could get here.” 

“Okay. What did you want to talk about?” 

And isn’t that the kicker. “I think I like girls,” Thalia says. 

“What?” Annabeth says. 

“Girls,” Thalia says. “Did you know girls could kiss other girls? And date them?”

“Thalia,” Annabeth says. “Did you not know that?”

“Annabeth,” Thalia says. “How was I supposed to know that?”

“Thalia,” Annabeth says. 

“I was a tree for my tweens, Annie, and then I joined the Hunt. When was I supposed to learn that?”

“Thalia,” Annabeth says. She starts cracking up. So much, in fact, that she has to sit down on the bottom step. 

Thalia’s face burns. “This isn’t funny, Annabeth.” 

“I’m sorry,” Annabeth says between laughs. “It’s just, you showed up with no warning in the middle of the night and broke down my cabin door to ask me if I knew about lesbians.” 

“There’s a word for it?” 

Annabeth’s laughter fades. She nods. 

“Lesbians,” Thalia says. She sits down next to Annabeth on the stairs. “What does it mean, exactly.” 

“A lesbian is a girl who likes other girls. Romantically. Plural, lesbians.” 

“Huh,” Thalia stares out at the commons. 

“So,” Annabeth says. “You think that’s you?”

“I don’t know,” Thalia says honestly. Because she doesn’t. She just knows that several months ago, Artemis told them stories of an ancient Greek poet named Sappho. She wrote love poems about women. The idea of that took up an increasing amount of space in Thalia’s brain over the months that followed, until they ended up in Seattle chasing rumors of the manticore. That’s where she saw rainbow crosswalks and learned the word pride, let it soak into her body and echo around her brain, where they stayed with Phoebe’s aunt and her wife. 

Phoebe’s aunt had a buzzcut and wore bermuda shorts and tank tops that made it easy to see how muscular her arms were. She had an abstract tattoo of a naked women on her calf. She held her wife’s hand in the living room after dinner while the Hunters sat around listening to Phoebe recount their adventures. 

They left the next morning headed for Wyoming. Thalia spent the trip thinking about that tattoo. When they set up camp that night, she sat staring at the fire, thinking, and thinking, asking Phoebe questions about her aunt and her wife, until Phoebe had asked why she was so interested and Thalia brushed it off even as Kill Bill sirens went off in her head. 

She found herself heading for Camp Half Blood a few hours later. 

“It’s okay if that is you,” Annabeth says softly. 

Thalia frowns. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

It’s hard to know for sure, in the dark, but she thinks Annabeth’s face changes into something sadder. “Nevermind,” she says. 

“Sorry to show up like this,” Thalia says quietly. “I wasn’t thinking. I just--I didn’t know who else to go to.” 

Annabeth shifts over and presses her shoulder against Thalia’s. “It’s okay. It’s just late, I jumped to conclusions. We never get good surprises around here. But I’m glad you came.”

Thalia lets her head rest on Annabeth’s shoulder. “Thank you.” 

“You can always talk to me, you know,” Annabeth says. 

“I know,” Thalia says. “Thank you.” 

Annabeth takes her hand and squeezes it. Thalia loves her. Her little sister, older than her now, a counselor, giving her worldly advice on her front stoop at ass o’clock in the morning. She feels lucky to have a friend like this, lucky that Annabeth still cares for her even though she’s never around. 

“I love you,” she whispers. 

Annabeth squeezes her hand again. “I love you too.” 

They sit in silence for a few minutes. Thalia can’t hear Annabeth thinking, but it’s a close thing. 

Eventually, Annabeth says, “You know, there are gay campers that might be more help than me. You can stick around, talk to them.”

Thalia winces. “I should get back to the Hunters.”

“They won’t be fine without you?” 

“I left abruptly. I should go back, check in.”

“How abruptly?”

“In the middle of the night abruptly?”

“Thalia,” Annabeth says. “Did you leave without telling anyone?”

“No! I told Phoebe, my second in command.”

“What, exactly, did you tell her?” 

She lifts her head off Annabeth’s shoulder and stares at the ground. “I told her Artemis had an errand for me to run.” 

“Thalia!”

“I couldn’t just tell her the truth!” 

“Why not?”

“I don’t know, Annabeth, maybe because we all swore off romance? And I thought that was fine because I’ve never liked a boy in my life, but now that I know there are other options I’m not sure anymore? I just didn’t know what to say to her. So I lied. And Phoebe is kind of a snitch.” 

Annabeth snorts. “Bitch.” 

“Yeah. Love and respect her, but she’d totally tell Artemis. And then what?”

“Thalia,” Annabeth says, voice soft again. “And then what?”

“What?”

“You can’t just go back to the Hunters and pretend this never happened.” 

“Sure I can,” Thalia says easily. 

“But do you want to?” 

Thalia kicks at the dirt with her toes. “No, I guess not. But I don’t think I’m ready to just leave the Hunters. And I don’t want to live in cabin one, it’s fucking depressing.” 

“It can’t be that bad.” 

“There’s a big statue of Zeus and no beds.” 

“There aren’t any beds?” Annabeth exclaims.

“Nope. Just the big man himself and a bunch of eagle statues.” 

Annabeth mutters something rude under her breath. “Well, then you can stay in the Big House.” She bumps her shoulder against Thalia and grins. “Or in Percy’s cabin, gods know he has extra room.”

“Gods, no,” Thalia groans, but a small part of her brain is telling her it might not be that bad. “I’ll think about it,” she says. 

“No beds,” Annabeth grumbles. “Who fucking decided that?” 

“I think we know,” Thalia scoffs, and Annabeth scowls.

“Fuckers,” Annabeth says. Thalia smiles and leans her head back on Annabeth’s shoulder. 

“But really, Thals,” Annabeth says. “What are you going to do?”

Thalia takes a moment to think. “Go back to the Hunters. Sort my shit out. Talk to Artemis, probably.” 

“Get your affairs in order?”

“Yeah, something like that.” 

“Well, you know where to find me if you need me,” Annabeth says. 

“Yeah,” Thalia smiles. “I do.”


End file.
